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A Peculiar Ministry for a Peculiar People

Posted by heavensembassy on August 27, 2010

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…”

1 Peter 2:9a

Ministry is not a one-size fit all deal. It encompasses dynamics that range from the group’s make-up to the service that the group demands from the minister. Therefore, the minister cannot be uniformly manufactured, because he or she is prepared by God through various circumstances, experiences, successes, victories, failures, and mistakes. Through these events the call of God prepares and equips one for the service of serving both God and humanity in the location that the Almighty places them. Location is inexpressibly important for the work of the preacher, because the preacher is called to a deliver a message to a people at a place.

Therein lies the peculiarity of ministry in a college context. The preacher must be malleable enough to the environment to become according to 1 Corinthians 9 like the people to gain the people. Hence, the college preacher (or a preacher in college) must embrace the ethic of the community to obtain the community. This may seem problematic, because one might say that God’s called are to be the standard bearer—this is accurate. However, the standard (and the standard bearer for the matter) mean nothing to those “without the law.” Hence, Paul insists that he became like those without the law to gain those without the law. This attitude dismantles hypocritical piety for the sake of being religious or perpetuating traditions. Rather it presents a human being called to “serve (their) present age” without pretense while inheriting chagrin, and this minister demonstrates that someone who is like “them” can be intimate with God, and despite their lawless and seemingly ungodly state God is still touching, calling, and listening for them because, they too are God’s peculiar people.